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When Hurricane Katrina hit Mississippi in late August 2005, the Biloxi shrimp processing and packaging plant of C.F. Gollott & Sons Seafood was destroyed. The family-owned firm could no longer process and package its range of shrimp products (whole, deheaded, peeled, and deveined varieties) in 5-lb bags for foodservice and retail markets nationwide. As the five Gollott brothers (Brian, Arnie Jr., Dale, Nicky, and Ben—sons of Arnie Gollott Sr. and grandsons of original founder, C.F. Gollott) made plans to rebuild the facility, they decided that they would install automated bagging equipment to replace the previous manual shrimp-bagging operations.
Co-owner Brian Gollott notes, "We had not been dissatisfied with the manual bagging operations in the old plant. Our packaging staff did an excellent job. But in the course of rebuilding, we saw an opportunity to upgrade our packaging efficiencies even further to increase production rates for our growing customer base and decrease product giveaway."
The company looked around at available scale and bagging systems, and co-owner Arnie Gollott came across the Advantage vertical form/fill/seal bagger (Model B3PF) and the Selectacom scale (model A612SHH2) from Triangle Package Machinery.
"The people from Triangle explained in detail how the equipment could work for us and handle wet, sticky products like fresh shrimp. They really did due diligence in helping us install the system, train our workers, and start up the line," says Brian Gollott.
As auxiliary equipment for the new scale and bagger, Gollot installed new lift belts and inspection belts custom-engineered by Biloxi-based Dellinger Sheet Metal (228/432-7164).
New operation
In May 2007, C.F. Gollott & Sons began operations at the new plant. The 5-lb portions of shrimp are automatically weighed by the Triangle Selectacom scale and are loaded into bags formed by the Triangle Advantage vertical f/f/s bagging machine. A clear 2.5-mil unprinted rollstock film (provided by multiple suppliers) is used to form the bags. The bags are date-coded using thermal heat-transfer coding equipment from Markem, which Triangle has integrated into the Advantage bagging machinery. Under the old manual bagging system, the company used preformed bags, which were more expensive than the rollstock film.
Brian Gollott notes, "The exact scale system is impeccable and minimizes product giveaway. With the manual weighing and bagging system, we had been averaging product giveaway of up to four ounces per bag in the form of overfills. Now overfills are almost nil. At the same time, our bagging speeds have doubled from approximately 2,000 pounds of shrimp per hour with the manual system to 4,000 pounds per hour with the automated system."
Currently, C.F. Gollott is only producing 5-lb bags of shrimp. But Brian Gollott points out that the new automated system offers the company the versatility to run from 8-oz to 10-lb bags if they choose to add other packaging sizes to the product mix in the future.
After the bags are formed, filled, and heat-sealed, they are manually loaded into three-color preprinted, wax-coated, paperboard boxes supplied by Livingston Box Co. The boxes are then channeled through a blast freezer before being loaded in 10-counts into master shippers (provided by multiple corrugated case suppliers).
In addition to doubling shrimp-bagging speeds and cutting product giveaway, the automated bagging system also has enabled about a 15% to 20% savings in labor costs. Brian Gollott reports, "The all-stainless-steel equipment is very manageable in terms of maintenance and clean-up. And we get great technical support from Triangle. We don't know the exact payback time on the system yet, but my brothers and I are very happy with what we've seen so far."
For related articles visit packworld.com/seafood


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This article is more than 1 year old
Bitcoinica sued for $460,000 by 'out-of-pocket' punters
Virtual bank accused of holding onto dosh after heist
The operators of a website that earlier this year reported that a hacker had stolen units of virtual currency worth hundreds of thousands of pounds are being sued by four users that claim to be owed more than $460,000.
According to documents submitted to a US court, four users of the Bitcoinica website have sued those involved in running the site, claiming that they have "knowingly and willfully conspired and agreed upon themselves to hinder, delay and deprive" them of their right to withdraw their money from the site.
In addition the four users claim that those involved "acted willfully and with the intent to cause injury" to them and that therefore they had been "guilty of malice, oppression and/or fraud in conscious disregard" for their rights and should be liable to pay "punitive damages".
In May the Bitcoinica site, which allowed users to trade real currency for virtual Bitcoin units (BTC), announced that 18,547 BTC had been stolen by a hacker of its systems. Currently a BTC is worth approximately $10. The operators said at the time that it would honour all "withdrawal requests" from those that had made deposits via its exchange. It subsequently announced that those making such claims would be provided with 50% of what they claimed in an initial payment.
More than 43,000 BTC were reportedly stolen from Bitcoinica following a hacking incident in March.
Since the second breach Bitcoinica has remained closed to trading whilst "the transitional process" for upgrading the exchange "to a professional level of security" is completed. The four users have only been able to withdraw half their money from the site and are claiming that those involved in running the site have acted in breach of contract by failing to repay $460,457.20 they claim they are still owed, according to the court documents.
Copyright © 2012, Out-Law.com
Out-Law.com is part of international law firm Pinsent Masons.

subset: commoncrawl


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Program places obese pets on a strict exercise and diet regimen.
Butters the yellow Labrador retriever may have dodged death at the shelter, but he had another large obstacle to overcome: his weight. The 142-pound pup (pictured above) inspired animal activist Heather Hines to start Doggie Fat Camp in Vernonia, Ore. "He had no hope of being adopted when we found him," Hines says. "No question."
Hines saved Butters from being euthanized at a county shelter in April 2011 through her nonprofit organization Indigo Rescue, which she founded in 1998 in an effort to reduce euthanasia in shelters and give "unadoptable" dogs and cats another chance to find a home. She also owns and operates Indigo Ranch, a cage-free boarding business, to fund the rescue work. Now the ranch can add another line to its list of services: fat camp. "We kept seeing these chubby dogs coming in and thought, 'Man, we need a doggie fat camp,'" Hines says. "It was kind of a joke at first."
Then Hines met Butters. The 3-year-old dog's weight was no laughing matter. It took four people to load him into Hines' vehicle. He wasn't just obese; he was greasy too, Hines says. Butters smelled foul and had huge patches of hair missing. Hines knew the pudgy pooch would have to lose a considerable amount of weight if he ever wanted to be adopted.First, Mark Norman, DVM, owner of Bethany Family Veterinary Clinic in Portland, Ore., examined Butters to make sure a weight-loss regimen was appropriate for him and checked that there weren't any other medical conditions that needed to be addressed.
"If there's an animal with a specific medical issue—dermatologic, metabolic or orthopedic—then Indigo Rescue directs the pet to us," Norman says. "Our role is to assist, treat and advise. If we can facilitate correction of the problem we do."
The doctors and staff members at Bethany Family Veterinary Clinic donate their time to the organization and Norman provides treatment at cost. The clinic also serves as a clearing-house for these rescued pets. Staff members decide what dogs can be treated and sent to a foster family and determine which animals need to visit a specialty clinic—or fat camp.
"Whether it's an owned pet or one coming out of a shelter, those pets are all checked by a veterinarian before they go into the fat camp," Norman says. "Then a strict diet and exercise program is established."
Aside from the fact that Butters was extraordinarily obese, he was otherwise healthy with normal blood work results. Once Norman gave the all-clear, Doggie Fat Camp at Indigo Ranch had its first attendee.
In the beginning, Butters couldn't stay on his feet long enough to exercise—he was carrying so much weight he had to lie down to eat and straddle the dish between his legs, Hines says. She controlled his portions and fed him grain-free, lean protein kibble twice a day—with a little bit of steamed veggies, like green beans, thrown in as well. Over time, through gradual weight loss, he become more active and Hines pushed him to walk around the 16-acre ranch.
"Halfway through his journey he suddenly realized, 'I can run!'" Hines says. "It was very gratifying to see this dog, who could barely walk a few weeks ago, be able to run."
Four and a half months later, Butters slimmed down to a trim 84 pounds—the equivalent of another large dog in weight lost, Hines says. "We placed him with a family and, of course, our contingency was, 'You need to keep him on this diet.'"
Click here to continue reading.
Now the camp is in full swing and Ozzy the rat terrier (pictured above) is Hines' first client dog on the road to better health. Pet owner Linda Phillips of Hillsboro, Ore., dropped Ozzy off at Indigo Ranch weighing 46 pounds. Her veterinarian says he should weigh 29 pounds at the most. Phillips and her husband had coddled Ozzy throughout his life because when he was a puppy he'd experienced necrosis in his right hip. Their veterinarian had to remove the joint and stretch the muscle over the area to act as a ball and joint.
"We felt so bad for the little guy," Phillips says. "We just couldn't stop giving him treats. The longer we had him, the larger his waist became." She says their veterinarian would "groan" at Ozzy's weight, so they bought therapeutic dog food and walked him, but they didn't have much success in helping Ozzy shed the extra weight.
"We were embarrassed for Ozzy. Kids, being blunt, would point and say, 'That's a fat dog!'" Phillips says. "I realized, 'Oh my gosh, we're killing him with kindness.' We needed some help."
Until he reaches his goal weight, Ozzy stays at Doggie Fat Camp Monday through Friday and goes home every weekend with measured portions of Indigo Ranch's diet food. It's been only a few weeks but Phillips says Ozzy is already jumping and running—acting like a new-and-improved dog.
When people think of a doggie fat camp they might picture a dog strapped to a treadmill—that's not what this is about, Hines says. Staff members take Ozzy on a half-mile walk alongside the Nehalem River twice a day. Initially he couldn't make the entire walk without lying down periodically to rest. Now Ozzy isn't panting or gasping for air, Hines says. She says the dogs feed off the fresh air and their energy levels improve just from being in the country.
Doggie Fat Camp costs $800 a month, plus the cost of food, which Hines says is basically the price of boarding. The pups weigh in once a month and stay until they get fit. However, it's useless to train the dog if you don't train the people, Hines says.
"I tell Ozzy's mom and dad it's going to be a waste of money if they go back to their old ways with him," Hines says.
Phillips says that won't be an issue. She and her husband are so relieved that Ozzy is forming healthier habits, they vow never to return to the way they were. The rat terrier used to sit tableside at every meal—now he's confined to the bedroom during lunch and dinner. Ozzy needs to continue exercising and dieting at the fat camp for at least one more month, but Phillips says his saddlebags are getting smaller every week.
"Ozzy's head used to be out of proportion with his body but now the collar around his neck is loose," Phillips says. "He's a happier dog and we're happier people."
Click here
to view more before-and-after photos of Butters and Ozzy.


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(CNN) -- They scream germs: Used gum. A flock of pigeons. A tomb covered with kisses.
The Blarney Stone in Ireland received more than 400,000 visitors in 2008, many who kissed the lucky stone.
These bacteria-infested attractions have topped an unusual list compiled by editors at TripAdvisor.com, a travel advice Web site. This summer, editors at the site named the five "germiest" tourist spots in the world.
Despite the H1N1 scare that went global this spring, tourists haven't stopped spitting out their gum and sticking it onto a wall already saturated with millions of gooey pieces, editors say. Nor do germ fears stop travelers from journeying to the pigeon-infested St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, where the birds often bestow droppings.
"These places are great attractions regardless of the fact that they are 'germy'," said Brooke Ferencsik, a travel expert at TripAdvisor. "Venice is lovely, and it's a great spot, but with all the pigeons, I'd bring an umbrella just in case the birds drop some gifts from above."
Though it is unlikely to get sick from visiting one of these places, health experts say germs are always a gamble. The more people who touch and visit a spot, the more germs there are in the mix, they say.
Their traveling advice? Travelers should load up on hand sanitizers and wash their hands often on their trips.
Blarney Stone in Blarney, Ireland
Where the Blarney Stone came from and how it got to Ireland is a matter of debate. One old tale goes: Once upon a time, the king of Ireland saved a woman drowning in Blarney Lake. The woman told the king that if he kissed the stone, he would receive the gift of eloquence.
Thus, the tradition of kissing the Blarney stone was born. Watch where you can find germ hotspots »
Last year, about 400,000 people kissed the stone, says a spokesman for Blarney Castle & Gardens. To do so, the person must be hung upside down to kiss the rock.
Some people prefer watching to smooching.
Chuck Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, visited the Blarney Stone in Ireland last year and refused to kiss the same spot where millions of tourists had put their lips.
"My wife did it," he added. "And I wiped her lips before I kissed her."
Market Theater Gum Wall in Seattle, Washington
There is a distinct fruity aroma that welcomes visitors when they pass the giant wall of gum housing millions of chewed pieces in Seattle. The gum -- pink, blue, yellow and green -- is piled several inches thick, spanning an area 15 feet high and 50 feet wide. Watch the wall of gum »
The Gum Wall, also dubbed the Wall of Gum, is one of the strangest attractions in Pike Place Market, where visitors can go to watch fish throwers and see the original Starbucks.
"People will do artwork with the gum," said Jay Hitt, the marketing director of the Market Theater. "They write words on the wall, stick posters and business cards."
The gum-sticking tradition began by accident in 1993 when patrons, mostly college students waiting in line for a show, would stick gum to the wall. Theater company workers say they scraped the gum routinely, but eventually gave up. Slowly the gum amassed.
Today, there aren't any rules at the Gum Wall. Visitors from all over the world snap photos next to it and leave as many pieces of their own gum as they want.
St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy
In the heart of Venice, Italy, lies St. Mark's Square, also known as Piazza San Marco, where both tourists and pigeons flock. Each year, more than 2 million visitors venture to St. Mark's Square to see the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Basilica.
Thousands of the dirty birds crowd the square sometimes leaving their droppings or attacking visitors. Some fearless visitors who aren't worried about germs snap pictures with the birds. But health experts warn that birds are notorious for carrying dangerous germs and viruses.
If you want to see the famous pigeons, go soon. In 2007, city officials have worked hard to remove the pigeons from the square. They have banned people from feeding them and have even started trapping the birds in nets, significantly reducing the pigeon population.
Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California
What do George Clooney, Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe have in common?
All three of them are celebrated stars with their hand prints molded into the concrete of the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre for millions of people to touch.
The sidewalk is littered with 246 celebrity hand and footprints that draw in 4.5 million visitors a year, many of whom put their own hands and feet on them. The site began as an accident in 1927 when Norma Talmadge, a famous actress in the 1920s, stepped into wet cement. Creator and owner of the theater, Sid Grauman, decided to make the hand and footprints a tradition.
"The stars are selected based on the longevity of their career," said Levi Tinker, a tour guide at the Grauman Theatre. "Stars who will be around 10 to 20 years from now are picked so people know who they are."
For germ-conscious travelers, Tinker says the concrete is mopped daily and pressure washed once a week.
Oscar Wilde's Tomb in Paris, France
It's an unusual site in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Author and playwright Oscar Wilde's body rests in a tomb speckled with lipstick marks from visitors from all over the world showing their literary appreciation.
Wilde, who died in 1900 from cerebral meningitis, continues to be a celebrated literary figure today famous for his tabooed sexuality at the time and his novels such as "The Picture of Dorian Gray."
The kisses display a rainbow of colors -- so much so that travel experts say Oscar Wilde's name on the tomb can be hard to discern sometimes.
One TripAdvisor traveler wrote after visiting the grave, "The tombstone of Oscar Wilde is ... well, wild, excuse the pun."
All About Travel Destinations • Ireland • Swine Flu • Italy


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Transgenic corn suppresses European corn borer, saves farmers billions
Transgenic corn's suppression of the European corn borer has saved Midwest farmers billions of dollars in the past decade, reports a new study in Science.
Research conducted by several Midwest universities shows that suppression of this pest has saved $3.2 billion for corn growers in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin over the past 14 years with more than $2.4 billion of this total benefiting non-Bt corn growers. Comparable estimates for Iowa and Nebraska are $3.6 billion in total, with $1.9 billion accruing for non-Bt corn growers.
Transgenic corn is engineered to express insecticidal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bt corn has become widely adopted in U.S. agriculture since its commercialization in 1996. In 2009, Bt corn constituted 63 percent of the U.S. crop.
Corn borer moths can't distinguish between Bt and non-Bt corn, so females lay eggs in both types of fields. Once eggs hatch in Bt corn, young borer larvae feed and die within 24 to 48 hours.
The major benefit of planting Bt corn is reduced yield losses, and Bt acres received this benefit after the growers paid Bt corn technology fees. But as a result of areawide pest suppression, non-Bt acres also experienced yield savings without the cost of Bt technology fees, and thus received more than half of the benefits from growing Bt corn in the region.
"We've assumed for some time that economic benefits were accruing, even among producers who opted not to plant Bt hybrids," said co-author of the study Mike Gray, University of Illinois Extension entomologist and professor in the Department of Crop Sciences. "However, once quantified, the magnitude of this benefit was even more impressive."
Over the past several years, entomologists and corn producers have noticed very low densities of European corn borers in Illinois. In fact, Illinois densities have reached historic lows to the point where many are questioning its pest status, Gray said.
"Since the introduction of Bt corn, initially targeted primarily at the European corn borer, many entomologists and ecologists have wondered if population suppression over a large area would eventually occur," Gray said. "As this research shows, areawide suppression has occurred and dramatically reduced the estimated $1 billion in annual losses caused previously by the European corn borer."
This information also provides incentives for growers to plant non-Bt corn in addition to Bt corn.
"Sustained economic and environmental benefits of this technology will depend on continued stewardship by producers to maintain non-Bt maize refuges to minimize the risk of evolution of Bt resistance in crop pest species," Gray said.
Provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


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Venango County has something for everyone -- from outdoor recreation to live theater, shopping, and beautifully-preserved historic downtowns with vibrant cultural assets, all surrounded by peaceful rolling countrysides and deep forests.
The County of Venango owns a park that is open to the general public, which includes a quaint beach, picnic areas, and hiking trails. Plan your visit to Two Mile Run County Park, today.
For more information on the region's outdoor attractions, including hiking, biking, camping, golf, boating, and so much more, visit the county's Be Here! website. Also, be sure to check out the beautiful Oil Creek State Park, a richly forested valley through which streams Oil Creek, where wooden oil derricks once replaced trees during the world's first oil boom in the late 1800s, which is on display at Drake Well State Park. Now a state park, the valley is filled with hiking and biking trails (paved and unpaved), as well as several waterfalls and scenic vistas.
The paved Oil Creek State Park Trail is a local component of the under-development Erie-to-Pittsburgh Trail, which starts at the Perry Monument on Presque Isle, follows roads through Erie into western New York, and works its way south to Oil Creek. It follows Oil Creek to the Allegheny River, then continues along the Allegheny River to downtown Pittsburgh. The other local Venango County segments include The McClintock Trail, The Oil City Trail, and the Allegheny River and Samuel Justus Trails.
Every summer, the region celebrates its page in history books as the birthplace of the world's oil industry, with the Oil Heritage Festival, throughout downtown Oil City. For a complete listing of events throughout the year, visit the Venango Area Chamber of Commerce.
In early October, the hugely popular annual Applefest hits the streets and parks in downtown Franklin, bringing with it more than 100,000 visitors for the event's food, vendors, live music, car shows, and so much more. For more Franklin events throughout the year, visit the Franklin Area Chamber of Commerce.
At Franklin's historic Barrow-Civic Theatre, in the heart of the city's scenic and historic Liberty Street, there's always something going on. Visit the theatre's website, today, to plan your next outing.
In addition to the wealth of great business retailers within the population centers, The Cranberry Mall offers more shopping options, including current hit movies and new releases at The Movies at Cranberry, along with the many standalone businesses located around the mall, in Cranberry Township, conveniently located in the center of Venango County, between Oil City and Franklin.
In Oil City, the Venango Museum of Art, Science, and Industry, has an architectural style recognized as Beaux Arts. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and is located within Oil City's historic Northside business district. The Museum collects, preserves and exhibits artifacts and related material relevant to interests of Venango County residents and visitors. Through a changing exhibit area, the Museum strives to provide a quality educational and cultural experience for visitors of all ages.
In Franklin, The DeBence Antique Music World Museum houses a collection of more than 100 antique mechanical musical instruments dating from the mid 1800's to the 1940's. This collection was begun by Jake & Elizabeth DeBence in the 1940's and continued to grow through the years. In 1965 the DeBences retired to the Franklin, PA. area and housed the collection in a barn which they opened to the public for viewing. After Jake's death, Elizabeth offered the collection for sale. It was her fervent wish that the collection remain intact and in the area.
In the idyllic Borough of Emlenton, the Crawford Center houses a restored classroom circa 1928 and features permanent and changing exhibits using artifacts from the museum's collection of records, photographs and memorabilia of the Emlenton area.


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The first SFU-UBC Indigenous Graduate Student Symposium is seeking graduate students whose research reflects the symposium theme: "Hands Back, Hands Forward – Indigenizing the Academy through Relationships."
The theme aims to explore concepts, practices, innovations and challenges in making academia more respectful and responsive to indigenous knowledge systems, communities and learners.
The symposium, to be held March 7, is open to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students.
The deadline for proposed submissions is Jan. 19, 2015 to firstname.lastname@example.com.
See attached poster for details: http://www.sfu.ca/content/dam/sfu/students/indigenous/Indigenous%20GS%20Symposium%20Poster%202015.pdf


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Honoring the Many Liberations That Mark Passover
This is the season of our deliverance. I don't think I'm going out on a limb saying so.
It was in this season, tradition teaches, at the first full moon of spring around 3,500 years ago that our Hebrew ancestors staged recorded history's first successful slave rebellion. We've marked the anniversary ever since by retelling and re-enacting our liberation. It's not enough, we're taught, merely to discuss it — we're required to experience it each time anew. "In each generation," the Mishnah decrees, "every person is obliged to see himself as if he himself had come out of Egypt."
It doesn't necessarily take a great stretch of the imagination to see oneself in that moment of liberation, if only because the moment keeps recurring. It was on the third day of Passover in 1775 that the war for American freedom began at Lexington and Concord. Three short weeks and 173 years later, with the taste of matzo still fresh in our mouths, the reborn state of Israel declared independence in 1948. The season of our deliverance, indeed.
And, lest we forget, it was on the first day of Passover in 1943, 70 years ago, that the youth of the Warsaw Ghetto began their hopeless, glorious uprising against the most wicked of modern pharaohs. They were beloved and pleasant in their lives, and in death they were not divided, and they redeemed the honor of Israel.
Emotions are probably more divided over the death of another young rebel on the first day of another Passover, 1,910 years before Warsaw. The followers of that slain rebel, Jesus of Nazareth, learned from him that redemption is of the spirit, even when the body is still in bondage. Most of his fellow Jews disagreed. Mutual recriminations followed. So began perhaps the longest and deadliest blood feud in history.
For centuries afterward the season of freedom was a time of fear and suspicion. Each year at this time, Jesus' followers recalled his death and, all too often, rekindled their anger. And Jews remembered their ancient liberation and prayed for a second deliverance.
When did the season of our fear become once again the season of our rising? Perhaps it began on Easter Sunday in 1903, 110 years ago. In Kishinev, in today's Moldova, a Christian mob attacked the Jewish quarter that day, as so many Easter mobs had done before, and 49 innocents were murdered. It was the seventh day of Passover.
This time, though, Jews fought back. Across Russia young Jews followed suit. They organized self-defense units, the first ever. Thousands joined the revolutionary underground, beginning the unraveling of czarist tyranny. Thousands more abandoned Russia for Palestine in the wave called the Second Aliyah, to lay the foundations of Jewish statehood.
In America, Kishinev ended Jewish ambivalence toward power. A group of bankers and lawyers met to form the first modern Jewish lobby, the American Jewish Committee, with fighting Russian oppression at the top of its agenda. One of them, banker Jacob Schiff, personally underwrote Japan's war bonds to secure Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. In Kishinev on Easter 1903, the seventh day of Passover, Jews began to fight.
In the century since then, the intersection of Passover and Easter has acquired another possible meaning. We've entered a new era. We're still struggling to absorb it, yet we ignore it at our peril.
This new era probably began on Easter Monday, the seventh day of Passover in 1916. On that day a few hundred Irish nationalists in Dublin mounted an armed uprising against three centuries of British rule. The Easter Rising lasted only six days and ended with the execution of all 15 of its leaders, yet it ignited a chain of events that led to full-scale war and Britain's concession of Irish independence in 1922. Ireland was the first captive nation since 1776 to throw off British rule. Its victory lit the way for the others that followed, from India to Kenya to Israel.
Of all the old-young nations battling for independence in the 20th century, few crossed paths as frequently, as intimately or as ambivalently as the Jews and the Irish. Both were ancient peoples, long kept in shadows on the margins of European civilization with only faith and pride to preserve them. Both fought to revive their ancient languages. Both agonized over the partitioning of their homelands.
Fighting a common enemy sometimes brought them close. Irish Republicans and Labor Zionists shared arms caches and safe houses in Belfast in the 1930s. In 1938 the Zionist militant leader Vladimir Jabotinsky came to Dublin to study anti-British guerrilla tactics with Robert Briscoe, the veteran Jewish IRA commander and future Dublin mayor. Briscoe later went to New York to raise money and support among Irish-Americans for Jabotinsky's Irgun. Yitzhak Shamir, heading the pre-state Freedom Fighters of Israel, better known as the Stern Gang, took the code name "Michael" to honor Irish revolutionary Michael Collins.
Interests were never identical, of course. During World War II, some Jews recall bitterly, the radical wing of the IRA briefly sought an alliance with Nazi Germany, the enemy of its enemy, unfazed by the Nazis' murderous racism. Few remember that the Nazis found them useless and abandoned them. Fewer still remember that Shamir tried to ally his Stern Gang with the Nazis during the same years for the same reason, but the Nazis wouldn't have him. Once again, Jews and Irish shared a common fate, angry with the Allies but unwelcome on the other side.
It's a mistake to romanticize the relationship more than it deserves. Ireland's old-school Catholicism sometimes held Jews in disdain after other nations had outgrown such bias. After 1949, when Ireland won full independence, it joined an informal bloc of deeply Catholic nations, including Spain, Portugal and the Vatican, that snubbed Israel and withheld recognition for years. Today Irish Middle East diplomacy treats Israel more harshly than almost any other European state.
If romanticism is misplaced, though, there's a greater danger in cynicism. It's fashionable these days to see enemies everywhere, to nurse every slight and conclude that Jews are a people apart. That may have been true once, but no longer. Today Jews have re-entered the rough and tumble of history, just as Zionism intended. In this imperfect world alliances have limits and heroes have lead feet, friends let you down and enemies meet you halfway. This is what freedom looks like.
And so, in this season of deliverance, let's raise a glass (or four) to the brave martyrs of Warsaw and Dublin who lit the way, and say dayenu.
Contact J.J. Goldberg at [email protected]


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The US Chess School in Atlanta: A Student's Perspective |
By Daniel Gurevich | |
January 28, 2010 | |
The 11th US Chess School was held in Atlanta, Georgia, December 26-31, 2009. Organized by IM Greg Shahade and taught by GM Gregory Kaidanov, the school brought together ten top scholastic players from all over the country. The participants included NM David Adelberg, Michael Bodek, Kevin Bu, Kevin Cao, Stuart Finney, Robert Perez, Arthur Shen, NM Kayden Troff, Sean Vibbert, and myself. This session was sponsored by Dr. Jim Roberts, Mark Schein, and FM Aviv Friedman. Aviv also attended. The instruction was split between the GM Kaidanov and IM Shahade. Greg Shahade concentrated most of his attention on analyzing the games of the participants. Of the about 150 games submitted, he selected the most instructive ones. Greg identified the critical positions, and all the participants were asked to independently analyze them. After that, he randomly picked someone to discuss his analysis, followed by a collective analysis with Gregory Kaidanov's help. This analysis taught us a number of valuable lessons. Most importantly, we realized that when first analyzing a game or an opening, an engine should be used sparingly. It's better to check the engine later on, to see if we missed a tactical opportunity in our initial analysis. Also, we were reminded to go through all of our games, even blitz. GM Kaidanov showed us a great way to use Chessbase 9 and Chessbase 10. We learned how to use the reference tab to find all games in a chosen database where a position set up on the board appears. This feature is especially useful for studying openings as it not only shows the different lines, but also makes it easy to find the latest variations played by top grandmasters. However, most of his time Gregory Kaidanov spent on solitaire chess, one of the most effective self-study techniques. He explained that it is a good idea to pick players with styles opposite to one's own. For example, a positional player may benefit from studying the games of Alexei Shirov, while a tactician might get more out of studying Anatoly Karpov's games. A couple of the games we analyzed using this technique is shown below. Evgeny Tomashevsky - Simon Ansell 24th ECC Kallithea GRE, 2008 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 d5 4.e3 Bg4 5.cxd5 Bxf3 6.Qxf3 cxd5 7.Bb5+ Nc6 8.Bxc6+! Creating a weakness to attack later. 8...bxc6 9.b3 e6 10.Bb2 Be7 11.0-0 0-0 12.Na4 White doesn't want to play d4 because it clogs the bishop. 12...Nd7 13.Rac1 Rc8 14.Rc2 Qa5 15.Rfc1 Qa6 Now Black is pinned to the defense of the c6-pawn. White can now attack on the kingside. Clearly doing this is h4 or Qg4 or Qg3, so that is clearly what he played... 16.Qd1!! A stunning positional retreat with the idea of Qf1!, forcing Black's queen to b7. Tomashevsky, an extremely positional player, doesn't even look at such opportunities such as h4!?. 16...Rfe8 Preparing Bf8 to protect g7. 17.Qf1! Qb7 Now how about a plan of Qe2, d3, e4? It looks pretty good... 18.h3!! As Gregory Kaidanov explained, in a position where there are little concrete ideas, sometimes you should make a slow move that slightly improves your position and doesn't weaken anything. This move suddenly becomes obvious. White wants to prevent back-rank mates 20 moves away. 18...Bf8 19.d3 g6 20.Qe2 e5 21.e4 Bh6 22.Rf1 Re6 23.Bc1 Trading bishops clearly favors White. 23...Bf8 24.Bg5 Ba3 25.Be3 Rd8 26.Qf3 26...dxe4? Here, Kaidanov explained that whether it is an A class player against an expert, an expert against a master, a master against a grandmaster, or a weaker grandmaster against a stronger grandmaster, the weaker player, in this case a strong IM, will not keep the tension. One of the most important lessons we learned from Kaidanov is that the stronger the player, the more comfortable and adept they are with keeping the tension. We later learned this lesson in a slightly different form. 26...d4?! is also not very good. White plays 27.Bc1 Bf8 28.Nb2 and eventually uses the weakness of the c4 square. White can also play f4 eventually; 26...Rd6! was the best, just waiting. 27.dxe4 Rd6 28.Rd1 Nf8 29.Rxd6 Bxd6 30.Nc5 Now Black is clearly much worse. His pawn structure is bad, White has an outpost on c5, the dark squares around Black's king are weak. Black is in trouble, and mostly because of his mistake on move 26. 30...Bxc5 30...Qc7 31.Qf6 Bxc5 32.Rxc5 Rd6 33.Qf3 doesn't make much of a difference. 31.Rxc5 Nd7 32.Rc1 Re8 33.Qe2 Sending the queen to attack Black's queenside weaknesses. 33...Nb6 34.Qc2 Re6 35.Qc5 Kg7 36.Rd1 Qe7 37.Qxe7 Rxe7 38.Rd6 Re6 Now comes the final important decision of the game. Should White play Rxe6 and Bxb6 or Rd8 and Bc5? The former looked more attractive to me, but GM Kaidanov proved me wrong. 39.Rd8! 39.Rxe6? fxe6 40.Bxb6 axb6 41.Kf1 Kf7 42.Ke2 Ke7 43.Kd3 Kd7 44.Kc4 Kc7 45.a4 Kb7 46.b4 Ka6 47.h4 Kb7 48.g4 Ka6 49.g5 Kb7 50.a5 Ka6 51.axb6 Kxb6 52.f3 Kb7 53.Kc5 Kc7 is a draw. Even if it weren't a draw, why allow Black any chances? The R+B vs R+N endgame was a simple win. 39...Re7 40.Bc5 Rb7 41.Bf8+ Kf6 42.Rd6+ Kg5 43.Rxc6 Nd7 44.Ba3 f5 45.Bc1+ f4 46.g3 Black had no more chances left, therefore he resigned. 1-0 We learned that keeping the tension is a vital skill. One example of releasing the tension is by trading or moving a pawn that is being attacked by another pawn. Another way that weaker players often let go of the tension too early is by trading pieces. Evgeny Pigusov - Gregory Kaidanov Moscow, 1987 Here it is Black to move in a difficult position. Gregory Kaidanov had to choose between ...Kc7 with an unclear pawn endgame, or ...Ka6 with the king in danger. He used this example to illustrate a typical mistake. If you like a move, the GM explained, you tend to calculate only the variations that reaffirm your choice. For example, during the game Kaidanov himself thought that going into the pawn endgame was the better choice. Therefore, he calculated variations where ...Ka6 loses and ...Kc7 draws. I remembered how Kaidanov had said earlier that, given the choice between defending a pawn endgame and a rook endgame, the rook endgame is almost always the right choice. This game was not an exception to the rule; ...Kc7 was the losing move. 43...Kc7? 43...Ka6! 44.Kc5 Rxf2 45.Kxc6 Rc2+ 46.Rc5 Rb2 47.b5+ Kxa5 48.b6+ Ka6 and Black is the one with the advantage. 49.Ra5+? Kxa5 50.bxa7 50...Rb6+! 51.Kc7 Ra6-+ No one who liked 43...Kc7 saw Rb6+ when calculating, while those who preferred 43...Ka6 surely saw this simple way to stop the pawn; their brain just wasn't seeing the variations. 44.Re7+ Rd7 45.Rxd7+ Kxd7 46.Kc5 Kc7 47.f3 f5?! This move just makes White's job easier. 47...Kd7!? 48.b5 cxb5 49.Kxb5 Kc7 50.Ka6 Kb8 51.f4 f6 (51...Ka8 52.Kb5 Kb7 53.a6+ Kc7 54.Kc5 Kd7 55.Kd5 Kc7 56.Ke5 Kb6 57.Kf6 Kxa6 58.Kxf7 Kb5 59.Kxg6 a5 60.f5 a4 61.f6 a3 62.f7 a2 63.f8Q a1Q 64.Kxh5+-) 52.h3 f5 53.h4 Ka8 54.Kb5 Kb7 55.a6+ Kc7 56.Kc5 Kd7 57.Kd5 Kc7 58.Ke6 Kb6 59.Kf6 Kxa6 60.Kxg6 Kb5 61.Kxf5 a5 62.Kg6 a4 63.f5 a3 64.f6 a2 65.f7 a1Q 66.f8Q Qd1 67.Qf5+ Ka4 68.Kh6!+- (68.Qxh5? Qd6+) 48.f4 Kd7 49.b5 cxb5 50.Kxb5 Kc7 51.Ka6 Kb8 52.h3 Ka8 53.Kb5 Kb7 54.a6+ Kc7 55.Kc5 Kd7 56.Kd5 Ke7 57.Ke5 Kf7 58.Kd6 h4 59.gxh4 Kg7 60.Ke6+- 1-0 There was also a fair share of fun throughout the week. The blitz tournament took place on the fourth day of the session. It was a round robin, as always, with Aviv and all of the students participating. During his bye, each player had an individual evaluation with GM Kaidanov. The tournament lasted for about two hours. After the battles over the board were finished, it was time for everyone's prizes. I won the tournament with 8.5 out of 10, but foolishly refused the prize, a two-game match with GM Kaidanov, not to ruin my victorious mood. The second and third prizes were matches with IM Greg Shahade and FM Aviv Friedman (Greg won 2-0, while Aviv won his match 1.5-0.5.) The rest of the prizes (in descending order) were: a handshake, a glass of water, half a glass of water, a piece of paper, half a piece of paper, an empty glass, and - what else? - NO COOKIES! The instructors never ran out of jokes and funny stories. The very first morning, Gregory Kaidanov showed how fun this US Chess School would be: "Kayden," Kaidanov joked, "You stole my last name and made your first name out of it!" Greg Shahade played blitz with all of the students during the breaks. Everyone was always ready for more study, but we were also looking forward to playing with each other and making new friends. December 29, the third day of the session, was my 12th birthday. It was one of my most memorable, because I got to celebrate it with a bunch of my very good friends. Also, the opportunity to participate in the 11th US Chess School was my best birthday present ever. Of course, I also got a cake and candles, and the happy birthday song, and a card that everyone signed. The festivities continued after the blitz tournament the next day, when the participants all went bowling. I was bowling for the first time, and it seemed everyone was doing much better than I, but it was a lot of fun anyway. In the end, the leaders were Kevin Cao and David Adelberg, but many were close behind. When we weren't bowling ourselves, we were cheering the others on. Here is what the other participants said about the session in their online interviews: David Adelberg: "I really enjoyed the US Chess School in Atlanta. Led by GM Kaidanov with significant contributions from IM Greg Shahade, the school included 9 other chess peers. This session really concentrated on recent games that we all played. I gained much knowledge from reviewing not only my games but also of the other attendees. The most significant lesson is to study my games in greater depth, annotation, and critical analysis before and after reviewing with my coach. Although the 9 other attendees are talented players with high ratings that play in many events, the amazing thing is that I have never played one game against any of them in a rated event. Even though they may be opponents for one game, the reality is that they are my chess friends and peers perhaps for many years. This week is a great opportunity to get to know my peers and develop friendships that can build over the Internet or occasional tournaments across the country or even international events." Michael Bodek: "The themes I learned were trading is bad and to not take draws from stronger players because if they offer me a draw I am probably better. I think not taking early draws against stronger players will help my game because I will be able to beat stronger players instead of drawing in those positions. I think that not trading will help me get better because I will get (and since the USCS I have already gotten) better positions and more winning chances. I also enjoyed meeting other strong rated player from other states and playing lots of blitz." Kevin Cao: "I learned many things during the camp. The camp was fun and easy to learn more about chess. Some themes I learned were: Don't automatically trade pieces and keep the tension by not trading pawns unless it gives you a clear advantage. This will help me because it keeps my play in the middle game so it will be easier for me to attack my opponent (I'm the strongest there). My favorite part of the camp was solving puzzles together and playing bughouse against each other during breaks. My favorite moments were when we all went your birthday bowling and played Bughouse against each other. One time while we were playing bughouse, my opponent was low on time and I said, "look, there's a bug on the wall!" and he turned around and flagged. We were all laughing and still laugh about it on ICC." Stuart Finney: "The US Chess School in Atlanta was a very enjoyable experience. I learned a lot from Kaidanov including themes based on prophylaxis, tension, and changing pawn structures. I have been doing Solitaire Chess and think it is helping me improve my overall game. The Dvoretsky puzzles were also helpful and interesting to look at. Besides the learning experience, I had a lot of fun interacting with the other kids. We could relate to each other through chess and I got to know everyone there much better." Robert Perez: "In the camp my favorite themes were prophylaxis, maintaining the tension, thinking 'what is my opponent going to do?', and how to study openings with chessbase. The camp was beneficial to me in many ways. The most obvious reason for this is that it was 9 hours of chess study daily, but other ways in which the camp has improved my game include that it taught me how to study more effectively and that it has motivated me to study more. The camp was extremely fun for me, and this due to both the interaction with the other participants and the large amount of chess that we would study. It was an opportunity for me to establish new friendships and renew old ones while studying chess for a week with Kaidanov and Shahade." Kayden Troff: "One of the themes that I really liked that I learned from the chess school is the idea that you need to analyze your own games before putting them into something like Deep Rybka. I liked that they taught us how to analyze our games and why that is important. I think that using Deep Rybka has really helped me improve my game, but I like the idea of analyzing it myself first. I can see how this will really help me when I am in a tough position in a game, which is similar, but not exactly like one I have previously played and analyzed. I really liked all the tools and information they gave us that we can use at home when we are studying like learning how to make two engines play against each other in a position that you choose. I think these things will really help in my study at home. My favorite thing from the school was being with the other kids. It was fun being in the classes together and figuring out the best moves and it was especially fun when we got to play chess together after the classes were over." Sean Vibbert: "I had a great time and learned a lot at the U.S. Chess School. GM Gregory Kaidanov taught various things about chess, and my favorite topics were solitary chess, prophylactic moves, and the best way to study openings. I learned about other things like how to play against lower rated players and what kind of moves to play in open and closed positions. I enjoyed going over Grandmaster games, and some of the students' games with GM Gregory Kaidanov and IM Greg Shahade. I had a lot of fun playing blitz and bughouse and hope to see everyone again soon." Thanks again to the US Chess School, Dr. Jim Roberts and two special sponsors for this session, Mark Schein and FM Aviv Friedman, who also founded the Schein-Friedman Scholarship. US Chess School founder Greg Shahade said, "Without people like Jim, Mark and Aviv, we would not be able to have such sessions, which the chess community benefits so greatly from." See the official US Chess School website here, and also see Elizabeth Vicary's Best of CLO 2009 #2 article for her report on the 2009 Arizona US Chess School. |


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Whatmore Criticised After Defeats in SA
KARACHI: Pakistan coach Dav Whatmore has come under severe criticism after the team's successive defeats in the Test series in South Africa, with some in the cricket fraternity holding him responsible for the reverses.
Whatmore, a former Australian Test player who took charge of the Pakistan team in March last year, is being blamed for being a passive coach in complete contradiction to his reputation of being a hard task master.
The Australian was demanding during his tenure with the Sri Lankan and Bangladesh team.
"Reports that are coming in from South Africa confirm that even after some careless approach by batsmen and bowlers in the second Test in Cape Town, Whatmore has not bothered to have a talk with them and give them a dressing down.
"Normally, in other teams when a team performs as badly as Pakistan, the coach minces no words in making it clear to the players what is required of them," a source close to the Pakistan team said.
Not only Whatmore but even bowling coach, Mohammad Akram and fielding coach, Julian Fountain are being blamed for not being tough enough with the players.
Former Test players like Rashid Latif, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohsin Khan stated that Whatmore has been a big disappointment.
"The problem clearly appears to be that Whatmore is not willing to do anything which goes against what the Test and T20 captains, Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad Hafeez or some other senior players are thinking. He is not willing to take a stand on some issues or selection matters," the team source said.
Few months back when there were reports that Whatmore had reported some players to the board for poor performances, the PCB issued a contradiction quoting Whatmore as saying that he had no problems with the players.
"This is not the Whatmore everybody talked about in the past. Even when he had applied for the Pakistan coaching position in 2007 some senior board officials had advised then board chairman, Nasim Ashraf against hiring him as they had reports that he had become very passive while dealing with players," the source said.
"Even when Misbah and Hafeez are making wrong calls, Whatmore is not taking a stand or telling them that they are wrong. Apparently he does not want to spoil his relations with them and put his position in danger," another source said.
Cricket analysts believe that unless the team turns around its performance in the last Test and in the one-dayers and T20s in South Africa, Whatmore could face some hard questions from the board chairman.
The Australian has been hired on a two-year contract by the board in place of Mohsin Khan, who had led Pakistan to Test series wins over Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and England before being asked to step down.


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Today I've got yet more swatch spam to share with you! I had a huge backlog of manicures to share with you all, and have even more yet to come...
OPI Liquid Sand in Can't Let Go and The Impossible (super easy "half and half" nail art that was a snap to do, thanks to those really tiny brushes that come in the OPI mini bottles).
Pahlish Anticipating and Pacing (love this colour combination!)
Pahlish Mind Like A Diamond
Rescue Beauty Lounge Jane
Rescue Beauty Lounge Jane, this time in sunlight (golden shimmer slightly visible)
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Barricuda (no idea why my fingers are absurdly red here)
Sally Hansen Lustre Shine in Copperhead
Sally Hansen Compete Salon Manicure in Greige Gardens. Possibly my favourite shade of nail polish.
Oh, pardon me, that's "GreigeTM Gardens". Apparently 'greige' is trademarked? Odd.
Tony Moly GI06. Insanely beautiful. I got mine from Korean beauty supplier Cosmetic-Love. They have awesome free world-wide shipping! Highly recommend.
Tony Moly GS09
Zoya Neely
And to top it off, a bonus shot of Neely paired with a perfectly matching minty-green ceramic rose ring.
Do you have any favourites in this bunch?


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Note: Another post by Tony LaHood. Enjoy. -TK
Sherman, set the way-back machine to 1974—to the wonderful days of seat belt-ignition interlocks, presidential resignations, 55 mph speed limits, and soaring fuel prices.
The OPEC oil embargo in 1973 had a long-term impact on the everyday lives of everyday Americans in a way few other events have. With the specter of gasoline selling for–God forbid–$1.00 per gallon, Americans' interest in small, economical cars surged, and many Honda and Toyota dealers displayed their characteristic altruism by dressing up new Civics, Coronas and Starlets in $1,000 mud flaps and $2,500 pinstripes in response.
The time was ripe for a new means of personal transport that was cheap to buy, cheap to drive, and cheap to maintain. This is the story of a vehicle that was none of these things, because it existed only in the mind of its creator.
Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael was 37 years old in 1974. A self-described "Indiana farm girl with five children and widow of a NASA engineer", she formed the Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation that year, in Encino, CA, and publicly announced its first product, the Dale.
A three-wheeled, resin-bodied car designed to achieve some 70 mpg, the Dale's genesis began with a truly talented engineer named Dale Leon Clifft. Working in his garage, Clifft had concocted a three-wheeled vehicle with an engine and assorted parts from various motorcycles. How he met Carmichael is unclear, but when she expressed interest in producing his creation, Clifft agreed to sell her the design. Reportedly he was promised $3 million for it, but at the time of his death, in 1981, Clifft had received only $1,000 from Carmichael.
A brochure issued by Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation (herewith TCMCC) claimed that the Dale's three-wheel configuration made it impossible to roll over, and thus safer than a four-wheeler; that any mechanical part on the car could be replaced in less than 30 minutes; and that this technological marvel would retail for less than $2,000.
Wild claims, you say? Actually, they seem carved in stone next to some of the others made by TCMCC, among them that the Dale would have no wiring whatsoever, thanks to its printed circuit instrument panel; and that the resin used to build the Dale (Rigidex, in company-speak) was, per ounce, the strongest material in the world and able to withstand virtually any impact short of a bullet.
Under its nearly indestructible hood, claimed the company, would be a vertically-mounted (?) 850cc, 40 hp BMW motorcycle engine capable of propelling the little beast up to 85 mph.
Armed with said brochure and phony press releases describing TCMCC as already having an up-and-running factory in Burbank, CA that employed over 100 workers, Carmichael now set about raising money from potential investors. At six feet and 200-plus pounds, Ms. Carmichael cut an imposing if not intimidating figure, and eventually persuaded investors to pony up a stunning amount of money; various sources report the figure between $6,000,000 and $30,000,000, but the actual total remains unknown.
Toward the end of 1974, Car and Driver magazine dispatched photographer Mike Salisbury to the West Coast to meet Ms. Carmichael and inspect the factory. In their book, History's Greatest Automotive Mysteries, authors Matt Stone and Preston Lerner wrote of Salisbury's experience at TCMMC's Encino office:
"A yellow, egg-like car – the Dale – was parked in a corner. There was no gas pedal or steering wheel. Ringed around the car, a couple of guys wearing Clark Kent glasses were scribbling on clipboards. Salisbury was convinced they were performing a pantomime for his benefit. As soon as they left, he opened the engine compartment and found it occupied by a Briggs & Stratton lawnmower motor. 'It didn't take much to realize that the whole thing was a scam,' he says. But the best was yet to come."
The observant visitor might also have noticed that the roped-off prototype was surrounded by an unusually large amount of space, undoubtedly by design. After all, how better to conceal front wheels that were nailed to a 4×4 wood post in place of a front axle, an "energy-absorbing, high-density urethane" front bumper that was merely plywood covered in black vinyl, and a "space-age resin" framework that was no more than welded 1/2″ metal tubing.
In early January 1975, a non-running prototype was on display at the Los Angeles Auto Show, where TCMCC declared that the Dale would be EPA-certified, crash tested, and in mass production within the next six months; it is not known whether the company planned to use pixie dust or magic wands to meet those goals.
At this point, it is necessary to mention Preston Tucker, and the movie The Producers. Carmichael must have been a fan of both, because at a time when her company should have been developing, refining and testing the Dale—to say nothing of actually ramping up its production facilities— it instead focused its efforts on issuing and selling shares of stock without SEC sanction, and selling non-existent cars to dealerships without a manufacturer's license or franchise permits. It wasn't long before the California Securities Commission demanded that TCMCC cease stock sales in that state (an order Carmichael simply ignored); however, the event that triggered serious investigation of the company was yet to come.
Toward the end of January 1975, TCMCC executive William D. Miller was found shot to death in the company's Encino office. The motive was (and remains) unknown, but the chief suspect was fellow employee Jack Oliver, who had once served with Miller in prison. (If nothing else, you've got to give Carmichael props for giving people second chances.) Now every employee at the company was under investigation—as was the Dale itself.
Not surprisingly, the Miller/TCMCC investigation was big news, and as disgruntled investors began telling their stories to television and print reporters, TCMCC shut off their phones, locked up the office, and fled town just as the Los Angeles District Attorney's office issued an arrest warrant for Carmichael, who had bolted off to a Dallas suburb, where she had reestablished operations—this time hawking another new-as-tomorrow three-wheeler , the Revelle, as well as a station wagon variant, the Vanagen.
In an extraordinary display of chutzpah, Liz actually managed to get the Revelle (presumably a non-running prototype) showcased as the grand prize on The Price Is Right. No contestant won it, which was just as well, but someone winning it would have created a very awkward and very entertaining scenario.
It turned out that Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael had formerly been Jerry Dean Michael, a man who happened to be an alleged counterfeiter who'd been running from Federal authorities since 1961.
In April 1975, Carmichael was traced to a Dallas suburb where she'd been living with one of five children she had fathered by his ex-wife Vivian Barrett. In addition to promoting the Revelle, Carmichael had pressed her five children into selling flowers on street corners in an effort to generate income. When police raided her home, she wasn't there; however, the officers found a trove of padded bras, wigs, hair removers and other items often used by female impersonators or transgender women.
In an interview for People magazine, Barrett claimed, "We love her just as much as we loved him. The children call her Mother Liz and me just plain Mother," and said that her former husband considers herself a woman despite not yet having completed the full course of sex-change surgeries.
Carmichael was tracked down to a rented house in Miami and arrested just as she was attempting to climb out a window. A Texas court tried and convicted Carmichael of counterfeiting and bail-jumping, both crimes committed when he presented as a man. The sentence of 10-20 years imprisonment and a $30,000 fine proved purely academic since Carmichael skipped town once again, this time jumping a $50,000 bail.
Carmichael lived, quite successfully, under the radar until 1989, when the television program Unsolved Mysteries featured her story. Almost immediately leads started coming in, several of which involved an Austin, Texas-area flower-selling operation manned by five siblings. Authorities apprehended Liz Carmichael—now living as Katherine Elizabeth Brown—in the town of Dale, Texas (!) and returned her to Los Angeles to face trial on the original fraud charges (incredibly, California had no law against bail jumping then, thus no such charges could be filed). The court sentenced Carmichael to 32 months behind bars.
After serving just over two years in prison, Carmichael was released on probation. She returned to Austin and her career as a flower seller, and died, of cancer, in 2004.
And what became of the two Dale mock-ups and one prototype that were built? One was acquired, in 1994, by the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles; it is seldom displayed. The other two are in the hands of private collectors. And so ends the story of the person who supposedly set out to shake up the automotive industry, but in reality only shook down some gullible investors.


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SMPTE® Announces Calls for Student Papers and Louis F. Wolf Memorial Scholarship Applications
White Plains, N.Y. (PRWEB) April 22, 2014 -- The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®), the worldwide leader in motion-imaging standards and education for the communications, media, entertainment, and technology industries, today announced a call for papers for a special student issue of the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal, as well as for the SMPTE Student Paper Award. SMPTE is also accepting applications for the Louis F. Wolf Memorial Scholarship.
"Education is one of SMPTE's three pillars, and there is no better way to demonstrate our commitment to education than by recognizing and supporting students, who are the future leaders of our industry and our future members," said Pat Griffis, education vice president at SMPTE. "We look forward to reading the submissions every year because they highlight the insight and vision of up-and-coming innovators in the field, which gives us all an indication of where the industry is headed."
SMPTE's Student Paper Award honors an outstanding paper prepared and submitted by a SMPTE Student Member that deals with some technical phase of motion pictures, television, photographic instrumentation, or their closely allied arts and sciences. The paper receiving the Student Paper Award will be published in the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal, providing recognition both for the author and the institution at which the work was done. The application form and requirements are online at http://www.smpte.org/student-paper-award. The deadline is July 15.
The Louis F. Wolf Memorial Scholarship is open to SMPTE Student Members who are full-time students enrolled in an accredited high school or two- or four-year college or university. The scholarship offers as much as $2,000 toward the cost of tuition at the student's educational institution. The application form and requirements are online at http://www.smpte.org/scholarships. As with the Student Paper Award, the application deadline is July 15.
The award winner and the scholarship recipient will each receive a full conference registration to the SMPTE 2014 Technical Conference & Exhibition, Oct. 20-23 in Hollywood, Calif., where they will be recognized during the SMPTE 2014 Honors and Awards Ceremony.
SMPTE has issued a call for papers for a special student issue of the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal. Students in the field of motion pictures and television with an emphasis on technology are encouraged to submit papers on technical, engineering, and scientific developments in motion pictures, television, and related fields. Chosen papers will be published in the November/December student issue of the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal.
Each paper must describe work done by the author as a student, and each paper must address technical theory, research, innovation, application, or practice specific to any of the evolving technologies associated with the media technology industry. Papers that are commercial or promotional in nature will not be considered, nor will those that have already been published. The deadline is Sept. 1, and all papers will be reviewed by the SMPTE Board of Editors. Further details, including potential paper topics, are available at http://www.smpte.org/student-paper-submissions.
Students may join SMPTE as Student Members for just $35, or for free if this is their first year of membership and they apply via the Student Membership Challenge. Further information is available at http://www.smpte.org/membership/student-membership-challenge. Further information about SMPTE is available online at http://www.smpte.org.
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About the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®)
The Oscar® and Emmy® Award-winning Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®), a professional membership association, is the preeminent leader in the advancement of the art, science, and craft of the image, sound, and metadata ecosystem, worldwide. An internationally recognized and accredited organization, SMPTE advances moving-imagery education and engineering across the communications, technology, media, and entertainment industries. Since its founding in 1916, SMPTE has published the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal and developed more than 650 standards, recommended practices, and engineering guidelines. The Society is sustained by more than 6,000 members — motion-imaging executives, engineers, creative and technology professionals, researchers, scientists, educators, and students — who meet in Sections throughout the world. Information on joining SMPTE is available at http://www.smpte.org/join.
All trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners.
Aimée Ricca, Society of Motion Pictures & Television Engineers (SMPTE), http://www.smpte.org, (914) 205-2381, [email protected]


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Higher margins boost Honeywell profit in slow economy
Honeywell International Inc reported a first-quarter profit above analysts' expectations and raised the lower end of its full-year earnings forecast as margins improved in a slow-growth economy, sending its shares up 4 percent.
Margin expansion was driven by raw material and general cost cuts, Chief Executive David Cote said on a post-earnings conference call.
Honeywell, which makes cockpit electronics and systems to manage the security of large buildings, has been trying to boost productivity across its four divisions and consolidate its businesses.
Gross margins rose to 16.2 percent in the first quarter ended March from 15.2 a year earlier. Honeywell has set a target of expanding gross margins to as much as 18 percent by 2014.
The company also funded over $30 million of new restructuring projects in the first quarter, Cote said.
Cote has been one of the loudest voices in corporate America calling on policy leaders in Washington to address the nation's debt load.
While sales in Europe and the United States remain subdued, Honeywell said it expected its business in China to pick up after a weak start to the year.
"Inventory levels (in China) are returning to normal and order rates are improving, particularly in our long cycle businesses, signaling a modest recovery over the remainder of the year," Cote said.
Honeywell now expects to earn at least $4.80 per share in 2013, above its prior forecast of at least $4.75. It maintained the top end of its forecast at $4.95.
First-quarter revenue was flat at $9.33 billion. Gross margins, however, rose to 16.2 percent from 15.2 a year earlier.
Net income attributable to the company rose to $966 million, or $1.21 per share, in the quarter ended March, from $823 million, or $1.04 per share, a year earlier.
Analysts on average expected earnings of $1.14 per share on revenue of $9.44 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company's shares were up 3 percent at $73.41 in early Friday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
They have gained more than 20 percent in the last 12 months and have outperformed the wider S&P 500 index, which has risen about 11 percent.


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Update – this post contains outdated language. We no longer use the term "mummy" and instead use "mummified human individuals" to refer to Ancient Egyptian people whose bodies were preserved for the afterlife. To read more about this decision, follow this link.
For over 10 years, our museum has organized an "Anthropologists in the Making" Summer Camp, and today we hosted 66 of these summer campers in the Artifact Lab for an afternoon of conservation training.
This year the camp is being held over 8 weeks, with different themes each week, including Can you Dig it?, all about archaeology, and Visions and Dreams, which explores the significance of dreams and the roles of shamans and mystics (this one is coming up in August).
The camp theme this week is Mummies Unwrapped so of course we had to give the campers a taste zxxcconservation, in addition to what they are learning about mummies and ancient Egypt.
We organized 3 different activities for the 7-13 year olds (they were split into 2 groups according to age) to test their hand and observation skills. All 3 activities were created to mimic some of the work that we've been doing in the Artifact Lab, including:
– an excavation station, which challenged the campers to pick out the remains of a beaded shroud from a bin of debris (similar to recovering PUM I's beads)
– a cleaning station, where campers tried different cleaning tests to remove dirt from a painted ceramic tile (like the cleaning that we've been doing on our painted coffin of Tawahibre)
– a materials ID station, where the campers had the opportunity to examine "mystery" materials under magnification and then had to identify what they were looking at (an example of one of the material ID challenges we've encountered in the lab can be found here)
For each activity, we had the kids fill out worksheets to record their observations, to give them a sense of the documentation involved in our work. Before moving on to the next station, each camper needed to get their supervising conservator to sign off on their worksheet. On their way out the door, all campers received certificates declaring them "Junior Conservators for-the-day".
We had lots of fun, not only preparing for the camp
but also working with the kids at each of the stations. We were impressed with their observations and how quickly they picked up on each activity (rolling swabs can be hard at first!). Special thanks to our Education Department and to all of the summer campers for increasing our department more than tenfold for the afternoon!


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This weird seagull statue (or would you call it a boobie?) resides in New Bedford, MA and the question of whether to keep the statue is pitting the town residents against each other.
There is one petition by a Raymond C. to remove the statue and a competing petition for Raymond to remove his petition.
While the original petition argues the statue makes the town look silly, the competing petition says it's as much a part of the town as any other art:
"New Bedford is so full of art and out of the ordinary things it would be silly to remove this glorious statue." .... "This man is just clearly uncomfortable by the female form and hates the art."
via thepetitionsite
An update to the statue removal petition clarified itself after that backlash with, "I never said it wasn't art, but it is bad art."
The creator of this statue, Donna Dodson, has done many others, like this panda.
via donnadodsonartist
The so-called "Seagull Cinderella" as she titled the New Bedford piece was installed in 2012.


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In April we introduced Instant Findability, TED video embeds, a springtime theme, a cool new domain, and reply-by-email for comments, now open to all. A pretty busy month, with more awesome features on the way, plus WordCamp San Francisco, on May 30.
If you're in town or want a reason to be, be sure to register soon. We've got a great speaker line-up, free WordPress schwag to give away, and, of course, a BBQ lunch.
Here are the stats for April:
- 370,053 blogs were created.
- 401,320 new users joined.
- 5,206,156 file uploads.
- 3,050 gigabytes of new files.
- 775 terabytes of content transferred from our datacenters.
- 8,691,962 comments.
- 6,991,335 logins.
- 1,162,296,607 pageviews on WordPress.com, and another 1,130,311,791 on self-hosted blogs (2,292,608,398 total across all WordPress blogs we track).
- 1,904,262 active blogs and 19,665,407 active posts where "active" means they got a human visitor.
- 1,569,961,240 words.
Other cool stuff:
After tallying the community vote, the judges panel (Derek Powazek, Matt Thomas, and myself) selected two winning designs for the I . You can now buy "Dandy(lion) Blogging" by el_square and "I Love Blogging (and Pixel Art)" by Robert Podgórski in the Infectious store as vinyl stickers for your laptop, iPod or iPhone. Congrats to the winners and all who submitted their work.
Though we released comment reply via email late in the month (April 23), you're already making great use of it. 1,029 replies to comments via email just in the final week.
Video uploads using the WordPress player are on the rise, too: 5,290 in April. If you haven't already checked it out, head to WordPress.tv to see what your videos could look like in the WordPress player (and to learn a bit, too). If you like what you see, you can purchase the Space Upgrade to get uploading.
We launched BuddyPress 1.0, a collection of plugins that transform a vanilla WordPress MU install into a social network.
WIRED.com migrated its blogs to WordPress, and Intruders.tv relaunched their channels using WordPress MU.
WordCamp Central was redesigned, and now has an awesome map that displays WordCamps around the world.
There were six WordCamps in April: WordCamp China, WordCamp Hong Kong, WordCamp NOLA, WordCamp Tokyo, WordCamp Nigeria, and WordCamp Reno-Tahoe.
Coming up in May: WordCamp Toronto, WordCamp Richmond, WordCamp Mid-Atlantic, WordCamp Columbus, WordCamp Ed CUNY, WordCamp Milan, and WordCamp San Francisco.


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Cate Blanchett is set to make her Broadway debut. The Oscar winner (and current nominee) will headline The Present, an adaptation of Chekhov's first play, written by her husband Andrew Upton. Joining her is stage vet Richard Roxburgh; the two headlined the world premiere last year in Australia. Directed by John Crowley, the Sydney Theatre Company production will open in the fall. No word yet on exact dates, theater or additional casting.
The Present takes Chekhov's Platonov, which was discovered in 1920 (16 years after his death) and updates the setting to a country house in the mid-1990s. It follows the birthday celebration of the widow Anna Petrovna (Blanchett), where Mikhail Platonov (Roxburgh) gathers with his wife, former students and friends. While everything appears calm on the surface, tension, unresolved relationships and regret quickly rise.
Blanchett—currently Oscar-nominated for Carol—won Academy Awards in 2007 and 2014 for her performances in The Aviator and Blue Jasmine, respectively. She received additional nods for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, I'm Not There, Notes on a Scandal and Elizabeth. Her other screen credits include Cinderella, the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit series and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. While she has yet to appear on Broadway, the actress has performed on stage multiple times in London and New York, including The Maids, Big and Small, Uncle Vanya and A Streetcar Named Desire.
Roxburgh's film credits include Moulin Rouge!, Mission: Impossible II, Van Helsing and the Australian TV series Rake, which he also created and produced. His stage work includes Cyrano de Bergerac, Waiting for Godot, Uncle Vanya (opposite Blanchett), Closer, The Homecoming, Burn This, Once in a Lifetime and Romeo and Juliet .
The Present will feature set and costume design by Alice Babidge, lighting design by Nck Schlieper and original music and sound design by Stefan Gregory.


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This Fail of the Week will remind our readers that every project they make, no matter how small they might be, may have big consequences if something goes wrong. Shown in the picture above is an oven that [Kevin] tweaked to perform reflow soldering. The story is he had just moved into a new place a few weeks ago and needed to make a new batch of boards. As he had cycled this oven many times, he was confident enough to leave the room to answer a few emails. A few minutes later, he had the unfortunate experience of smelling something burning as well as discovering white smoke invading his place.
The oven control board [Kevin] designed is powered by USB and uses simple ON/OFF temperature control. The temperature inside the oven is measured using a MAX6675 K-type thermocouple amplifier. After having thrown the oven outside to contain the risk and let it cool down, [Kevin] started to investigate what may have been the cause of the incident. He discovered that his temperature reading was not correct, and that swapping the USB AC adapter with another resolved the problem. The chip reading the thermocouple needs a solid 5V reference for accurate readings. The mains adapter he was using is non-branded and he guesses that the 5V rail is super dirty. We'd love to see an oscilloscope screenshot… perhaps encouragement in the comments section will convince him to publish a follow-up?
He plans to implement a simple over-temperature detector on a completely separate circuit using a mechanical relay to cut mains if things heat up too much.
Fail of the Week is a Hackaday column which runs every Wednesday. Help keep the fun rolling by writing about your past failures and sending us a link to the story — or sending in links to fail write ups you find in your Internet travels.


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Task A: Steep Turns
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Glass Pearls |
All our pearls are natural freshwater, cultured in China. Sizes are largest in the strand. For Wholesale pearls click here
The least expensive cultured pearls today rival the most expensive natural pearls ever found. Natural freshwater pearls occur in mussels for the same reason saltwater pearls occur in oysters. Foreign material inside a mussel can't be expelled. To reduce irritation, the mollusk coats the intruder with the same secretion it uses for shell-building, nacre. To cultivate a pearl, farmers slit the mussel and insert small pieces of live tissue from another mussel.
The ancient Chinese practiced this technique, but the first real cultured freshwater pearls originated in Japan. In the 1930's, Japanese farmers by Lake Biwa achieved natural colors unseen in saltwater pearls. However, water pollution today has virtually destroyed pearl production there. China now has the resources that Japan lacks: many large lakes, rivers, and a low-cost work force. The first Chinese cultured pearls were basic, until the 1990's when China revolutionized pearling. Shapes, luster, and colors of the new Chinese pearls now surpass Biwa quality. Copying the Japanese to improve off-white and mottling, China uses a mild bleach, bright lights, and heat. Natural freshwater pearls are usually odd shapes. So for more roundness, the Chinese now reshape rejected pearls into spheres, and then nucleate mussels with them.
The best pearls have thick overlapping layers of nacre. This can be tested by viewing its "luster". Roll the pearl with a pen in good light - the best pearls will reflect the pen the most. A large pearl is only more valuable if it's the same quality as a smaller one - and the rounder the better. Being an organic gem, grooves, pits, or dents are expected. However, matching color for a complete necklace is important. Freshwater pearls are popular for their colors: white, silvery-white, pink, red, copper, brown, lavender, purple, green, blue, and yellow. The most desirable are the pastel pinks, roses, lavenders, and purples. Color comes from the mussel species and water quality. Generally pearls assume the color of the shell in which they form, but permanent dyes are used today for most saturated colors.
Mother-ofPearl: The shining, playful, and reflected light of mother of pearl has attracted the attention of human beings since the beginning of the world. Societies, tribes, and nations have all added the technology of their day to their experience, knowledge, and understanding, and they have turned mother of pearl from one form into another. Though mother of pearl is quite widespread around the world, its assumption of the aspect of a magnificent branch of the arts after a past of many centuries began when it came into the hands of the Ottoman Turks. (nâ´ker) or nacre , the iridescent substance that forms the lining of the shells of fresh-water and some salt-water mollusks. Like the pearl it is a secretion of the mantle, composed of alternate layers of calcium carbonate and conchiolin. Among the chief sources are the pearl oyster, found in warm and tropical seas.
To return to the store click here


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A storm brewed up north of us this evening, and put on quite a light show! I put the camera up on the tripod and took some photos. I couldn't decide on a favorite photo, so I'm sharing a BUNCH of photos! I am posting them in the order they were taken. And, I encourage you to click on the photos to get a larger, clearer view. Pretty cool!
You can see our neighbor's house in the distance. I did move the camera a few times because sometimes there were just more bolts in different parts of the sky, but I kept the neighbor's house in every photo.
What was strange was for the longest time we couldn't even hear the thunder. In fact, it wasn't until the last few frames that it became a distant rumble we could actually hear.
Once the storm got closer to us (it was moving very fast!) the thunder proved to be quite loud. Mister Farley had to get all nervous and scared, but eventually decided that his "safe place" under the coffee table was OK.
To take these photos, I put the camera on the bulb setting and manually held the shutter open for between 15-25 seconds. I had planned to use my wireless shutter release, but the batteries were kaput. So, all of these photos were taken with my finger holding the shutter open. I'm sure they're a bit "wiggly" if I inspect them at great detail, but they're not too bad considering!
In this photo, you can actually see how fast the clouds were moving ... the lightening made the storm clouds look double exposed in the upper right corner (right in front of that nice glow).
We even got a bit of rain once the storm made it over to us. Not quite a quarter inch. Better than nothing -- we'll take every last drop!
Enjoy the rest of the photos...
You can really see the rain coming down in this photo.
Something was getting hit! Zoweeee!!
This one might actually be my favorite. I love the curved arches of light in the center.


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Established in the Cathedral City of Worcester for over 40 years ,M.Lees&Sons , run by Michael Lees ,have been dealing with public and trade from show-rooms in an early Georgian town-house. We aim to provide a straight-forward approach to our business and build lasting relationships with our customers. As members of the 'London and Provincial Antique Dealers Association' , we provide full descriptive details , date ,authenticity and any available provenance ,with full disclosure of any restoration or repair which may have taken place . Whether buying for pleasure , decoration or investment, we welcome you to our web-site or premises . Past projects have included advising clients on forming and disposing of collections , furnishing period properties , hotel and commercial projects , also a shoot-room and lodge . All goods are available to view and owned by M.Lees&Sons . If visiting, a telephone call prior is advisable as due to the demands of the business the show-room does not have regular hours . Please feel free to contact us if we can be of assistance . www.leesantiquesworcester.com. Tel. 01905 26620 / 07860826218 Located in the centre of Worcester in the shadow of the Cathedral with easy parking nearby. Exit Junction 7 M5 and follow the signs for Worcester Porcelain Museum . Our premises are located 100 metres from the Museum and 50 metres from Pay&Display car-park in nearby King St.


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Russia demands broad UN role in Net governance, leak reveals
<b>commentary</b> Leaked document from upcoming treaty negotiations reveals Russia wants transfer of authority over Net to national governments. The U.N.'s increasingly shrill denials are ringing ever more hollow.
commentary The Russian Federation is calling on the United Nations to take over key aspects of Internet governance, including addressing and naming, according to documents leaked on Friday from an upcoming treaty conference.
The Russians made their proposal on November 13 in the lead-up to December's World Conference on International Communications in Dubai. The conference will consider revisions to the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), a treaty overseen by the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The treaty has not been revised since 1988, before the emergence of the commercial Internet.
Russia's proposals would, if adopted, dramatically affect Internet governance, transferring power from engineering-based organizations such as the Internet Society and ICANN to national governments, all under the authority of the UN.
There are 193 Member States participating in the WCIT. Each gets a single vote on proposed changes to the treaty. The treaty negotiations and its documents are secret, though many have been exposed through the Web site WCITLeaks, run by two researchers at George Mason University.
"The [proposed] additions to the ITRs...are aimed at formulating an approach that views the Internet as a global physical telecommunications infrastructure, and also as a part of the national telecommunications infrastructure of each Member State," the Russian proposal says.
Russians propose bringing "IP-Based Networks" under UN control
Currently, the ITRs cover only international telecommunications services (PDF). But the Russians propose adding a new section to the treaty to deal explicitly with "IP-based networks." Bringing the Internet into the treaty in any capacity would represent a major expansion of the scope of the ITU's authority.
The leaked proposal would strongly endorse national control over those parts of the Internet that reside within a country's borders, including ISPs, traffic, and engineering. One suggested change to the treaty, for example, declares that "Member States shall have the sovereign right to manage the Internet within their national territory, as well as to manage national Internet domain names."
Russia is also calling for a major revision to the multi-stakeholder governance process that has long-presided over domain names and Internet addressing, which it calls a "critical transnational resource." Under a proposed revision, the treaty would be amended to make clear that "Member States shall have equal rights in the international allocation of Internet addressing and identification resources."
Today, oversight of domain names and IP addresses is delegated to ICANN, a nongovernmental organization, which manages key Internet resources through a complex mechanism. According to ICANN, its model is "bottom up" and includes "registries, registrars, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), intellectual property advocates, commercial and business interests, noncommercial and nonprofit interests, representation from more than 100 governments, and a global array of individual Internet users."
The ITU, by contrast, allows only its member nations to vote. Private organizations can participate in its proceedings by paying a large annual fee but cannot propose amendments or vote.
The multi-stakeholder system is seen as a major roadblock to long-standing efforts by some governments to control both incoming and outgoing Internet traffic, particularly for political purposes. Critics inside and outside the U.S. have been warning all year that some countries as well as private members of the ITU were determined to hijack the conference and transform the UN's increasingly trivial international telephone rules into a broad, UN-sanctioned takeover of Internet governance.
Proposals leaked earlier from Russia, China, Iran, and others would authorize member nations, with UN blessing, to inspect and censor incoming and outgoing Internet traffic on the premise of monitoring criminal behavior, filtering spam, or protecting national security.
Curbing the Internet is a priority for these countries that goes well beyond the WCIT process. China, for example, recently hosted its first annual "Internet Roundtable for Emerging Countries," attended by Russia, Brazil, India, and South Africa. According to observers of the meeting, the participants agreed that "The Internet must be managed by governments, with a particular focus on the influence of social networks on society."
The Russian proposal, however, is the most audacious power grab to date. And it comes as little surprise to observers of the ITU, which hasdeepened ties to Russia in a bid to demonstrate its relevance in cybersecurity. Last year, during a meeting between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure, Putin bluntly told Toure that Russia was keen on the idea of "establishing international control over the Internet using the monitoring and supervisory capability of the International Telecommunications Union."
Some private organizations are also exploiting WCIT in an effort to overcome local regulatory constraints. As first reported by CNET in June, for example, a trade association of European telephone companies known as ETNO proposed altering the ITRs to mandate new transit agreements for Internet traffic, implementing a "sending party network pays" model that would have taxed Internet content companies on behalf of local telecommunications companies.
So far, the Internet traffic tax proposed by ETNO has not been endorsed by any European member nation, but versions of the plan have appeared in secret proposals from some African and Arab states.
ITU efforts at spin go badly out of control
Even before the Russians' latest proposal, the ITU had become increasingly desperate to cast itself as an innocent third party in the growing firestorm of criticism ahead of the WCIT meeting. Secretary-General Toure has been sharply critical of "sensationalist claims in the press" that characterize any WCIT proposal as antidemocratic or that suggest the ITU has a stake in extending its reach to IP-based networks. "WCIT is definitively not about taking control of the Internet or restricting people's freedom of expression or freedom of speech," Toure said in a speech in September.
In a follow-up interview with Bloomberg BNA, Toure denied that his organization had any interest in Internet governance. "Internet Governance as we know it today," he said, concerns only "Domain Names and addresses. These are issues that we're not talking about at all," Toure said. "We're not pushing that, we don't need to."
The Russian proposal, and earlier leaked proposals dealing with Internet engineering and protocols, belies that claim. Nor is WCIT the start of UN efforts to wrest control from existing multi-stakeholder organizations. Since 2004, the UN has tried in particular to seize power from ICANN, an effort the Russian proposal now endorses.
To counter negative attention focused on the secrecy of ongoing treaty negotiations, the ITU has conducted a clumsy PR campaign rife with misdirection and misstatements. Today, for example, three days after receiving the Russian proposal and translating it into English, the ITU issued a statement on its Web site reiterating that "there have not been any proposals calling for a change from the bottom-up multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance to an ITU-controlled model."
The ITU, which dates back over 150 years, seems increasingly desperate to control criticism that is now coming not only from government officials and private sources but from Internet users worldwide.
In an op-ed published November 7 on Wired, Toure pleaded with readers to accept his "heartfelt" assurance that the ITU's only agenda was to expand Internet access for developing nations:
The conference will address issues that relate to improving online access and connectivity for everyone. (To be clear, the conference will not examine management of critical Internet resources such as domain names and IP addresses. These functions are already performed by ICANN and regional Internet registries.)
After commenters on the piece savaged Toure's hypocrisy, the secretary-general added a postscript as "an engineer who comes from one of the world's poorest countries." He reassured readers that, "For me and the ITU, it's about giving people the power to totally transform their lives through education, health care, and everything else the online world can deliver."
With the added postscript, Wired also notably changed the headline of the article, without any notice or explanation. The original title, "UN Must Regulate the Internet" was revised to "UN: We Seek to Bring Internet to All."
In response to growing criticism about the ITU's lack of transparency, Toure also encouraged Internet users to "participate" in the WCIT process. "ITU has opened an online space where anyone can post an opinion on the issues, to be shared with all conference delegates," he said in the Wired article.
A link directed readers to the WCIT 12 "Public Views and Opinions" page , which, since it was created in July, has received only 15 posts.
But perhaps that's because the ITU required commenters to first register, provide extensive identifying information, and agree to a lengthy terms of service agreement before they could "express their views" on the contents of a single, and highly redacted, early draft of the proposals the ITU decided to release. (The complete document, as well as many more recent versions, are available on WCITLeaks.)
Or perhaps that's because, as one of Wired's reader's pointed out, the "Public Views and Opinions" page had actually been shut down before Toure's editorial was even published.
Weeks ahead of the conference, and just as some of the worst proposals are leaking out of the ITU's information fortress, the public comment page now reads solemnly: "We inform you that the WCIT-12 Open Consultation process is now closed."
That statement captures, in a nutshell, everything that's wrong with the WCIT, and the ITU's pathetic effort to spin it.